Friday, 8 July 2016

Wimbledon: Serena Williams says female players deserve equal pay

The
21-time Grand Slam champion was questioned on the issue after her
48-minute 6-2 6-0 Wimbledon semi-final victory against Elena Vesnina.
Roger
Federer and Andy Murray's Centre Court quarter-finals against Marin
Cilic and Jo Wilfried-Tsonga lasted a combined seven hours and 11
minutes.
"I don't deserve to be paid less because of my sex," said Williams, 34.
The
American was asked about equal pay by the media after she swept into
her ninth Wimbledon title in under an hour while, on Wednesday, second
seed Murray and third seed Federer were both taken to five sets.
In March, male world number one Novak Djokovic said men deserved to be paid more because more people watched them.
However, the 11-time Grand Slam winner apologised shortly afterwards, saying: "I don't make any differences between the genders. I am for equality in the sport."
His
comments followed Indian Wells tournament chief Raymond Moore saying
the women's game was "riding on the coat tails" of the men's.
Moore, who also said female players "should get down on their knees" in thanks to male counterparts, later resigned.
"Basically my whole life I've been doing this. I haven't had a life," defending Wimbledon champion Williams said.
"I
would like to see people - the public, the press, other athletes in
general - just realise and respect women for who they are and what we
are and what we do."
Wimbledon was the last Grand Slam to
introduce equal pay in 2007, while the French, US and Australian Slams
introduced it in 2006, 1973 and 2001 respectively.
Williams will
face Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber in the final on Saturday,
after the German beat Venus Williams 6-4 6-4 in the other semi-final,
in 72 minutes.
Kerber said: "We are giving everything on court, everybody. You never know if it's two hours or, at the end, eight hours."